This past weekend I met up with Ryan in Denver Friday night.
After long stressful weeks we decided to just relax for the weekend (well Saturday, Sunday we spent the day flying back). So Saturday we watched movies most of the day, even venturing out to watch How to Train a Dragon in 3D which was better than expected for both of us (and I was looking forward to it). I’m reading the book currently and it’s definitely different but very well done.
Now it’s back to work for the week and I have some car repairs that need to be done this week. Car inspection today (Monday) and I need to call a repair shop about some noise my car is making tomorrow. If they can take the car in I may work from home tomorrow because the noise/feel of the car was really bothering me today.
This weekend we have some house plans! We’d like to grout the bathroom and also hook up the electric to the bathroom (i know – i know!!! i should have done that by now but come on!). We also have to mow the lawn and maybe i’ll do a little outdoor work, not too much to do though since I haven’t started new gardens this year.
Finally a little time in the gardens! This weekend we traveled back to NY to visit some family. We had lunch with Ryan’s sister, then dinner with his mother and stayed the night at my parent’s house. When we got back home it was still nice out so I headed out to the gardens to get the first spring weeding done and reveal what plants survived the winter! Then I picked up the yard so we could mow this week.
First up – my perennial garden, surprisingly I got quite a few plants back this year. I’m not seeing any sign of a few of the plants but it’s still early so I’m not giving up hope. Plus i think I kept a few weeds because they looked pretty right now and I wasn’t sure what we planted.
Perennial Garden coming back to life
The Epimedium (there are 2) is really blooming.
Epimedium blooming away
I’m taking a quick review of what we planted which can be seen here: Perennial cutting garden. It looks like both Epimediums (2) survived as well as all Mountain Bluets (3). Lily of the Valley survived but I thought it was a weed so I weeded it back pretty strongly (my neighbor has it there too), it will grow in again most likely.
I didn’t see the Valerium (2) coming in – but I don’t really know what it looks like so I may have weeded it out. Actually I just looked at a picture and that one may have been coming back but if so it was popping up all over the place and already blooming (seems too early?) and I thought it was a weed (oops) so I pulled it out.
The chives (3) are coming in very nicely and the Bergenia (1) came back too. At least one Dark Geranium came back (maybe both).
What I didn’t see coming back were the daisies and the black eyed susans. I also don’t know what the Echinacia looks like so i couldn’t’ tell that one. I’m going to keep an eye out on that side of the garden, I did not weed as strongly over there knowing I didn’t see the plants yet.
And the rose garden. These i weeded and cleaned up a bit. 3 of the 4 bushes are coming back beautifully. One has no buds yet (white roses), I’m not giving up complete hope yet because it was such a late bloomer and budder last year but it may not have survived. The silvery plants I cut back because they had new growth in the center and were a little unwieldy. We’ll see if my efforts destroyed them or helped them.
Rose garden coming back to life
The raspberry bushes came back very strong, I cut out some dead wood and removed some of the baby plants that were too close to the lilies. 3 of my lilies are coming back! I don’t’ remember if i planted 3 or 4. They look great so far! I’d like to reorganize some of my perennials from the roses side and put them in front of the raspberries to tie the two gardens together but so far no time!
After gardening I headed inside to continue the vacuuming of the demolition area. I got it pretty cleaned up, enough so we can now use it and I started moving some tools and trim in there. I’ll continue this progress each night, my goal is to have the tv room set up as a proper livingroom for company by Friday night!
This week really passed by quickly, that tends to happen when we work a lot though. Even though I haven’t had any time to work on the house this week I’m hoping to get the new demo’d area vacuumed some time this weekend so we can move the tools in and start using that area again.
Last night I managed a little sewing, got a dress hemmed for my sister and even fondled a little quilting fabric (if only i had some more time to play)!
I’d like to have one day a week that I do something for myself, sewing or crafting of some sort. Eventually I’ll get there. I think I need to get to a better place with work first however, it’s a bit hard finding me time when I work such long hours. Speaking of work, I forgot I needed to log on to do something quick tonight – then it’s time to watch Bones (we missed it last night)!
There has been no house progress this week so far – for a couple of reasons. First – we’ve both been working LONG days/nights at work. Second – I’ve come down with a cold which means when I’m home I’m generally sleeping. And finally – next week we are taking a vacation from work to work on the house! We decided to take the week of our birthdays off and both relax and work on the house.
The plan so far:
– Finish tiling the bathroom and get the door trim up (now that the door is in place!)
– Grout the bathroom
– Grind the stumps where I want to put my veggie garden
– DEMO! Part II of the house renovations begins next week – this includes the Front Hall, the Livingroom and Diningroom! I can’t wait.
So stay tuned. Also coming soon – a picture tour of the outside of our house and property (by request). I will take pictures this weekend if the weather cooperates and put something together on the site next week!
